Tag: fibre

Every now and then, I like to make my husband a vegetarian option for his sandwich fillers. Personally, if I would have the same sort of deli, cured, smoked meat in my sandwich everyday, I know I’d definitely get sick and tired of that filling pretty quickly. And not to mention, how ‘heavy’ or hard on my digestion it would be; don’t even get me started on what sort of ingredients/chemicals are in those ‘foods’ (if you can call it that). I actually never buy any of those sorts of meats anyhow.

I usually bake a lentil and brown rice loaf or a pumpkin seed and sunflower seed loaf, but this time, I just didn’t want to turn my oven on a). it takes ages for it to preheat; b). having the oven on will only make my kitchen hotter – I’m usually really hot as it is anyway and c). I usually over bake the loaves and they are a firm and dryish consistency, that’s why lots of mayonnaise or a slice of tomato really makes it yummy and easier to swallow.

I love steamed puddings. Why not make a savoury steamed nut pudding? I thought to myself. Nuts are packed full of nutrition, minerals in particular, good fats and protein, have heaps of fibre and therefore leave you feeling fuller for longer. I am sure that you’ve heard of activating nuts before. It is a good idea to ‘activate’ raw nuts. All you have to do is soak them over night in cool or room temperature water; drain off the water and rinse the nuts of the impurities – the enzymes have now been ‘activated’ and the enzyme inhibiting factors or anti-nutrients will now be ‘washed away’. This makes the nuts easy to digest, is easier on the liver and you absorb more nutrients this way. They do go off within a few days, so activate as many nuts as needed to prevent wastage. Or you can activate kilos of nuts at a time, dehydrate them and pop them back into the freezer ready to use anytime.

When making this pudding there is no need to dehydrate the nuts to make them crunchy again; however, if you want to make a nut butter, it is a good idea to dehydrate them.

So here is my creation…

You can play around with whatever nuts or seeds you like. I like cashews as they give a creamy texture and walnuts as they make everything taste just that bit more savoury and not sweet. Use which ever herbs you prefer – the possibilities are endless 🙂

Place cashews and walnuts into TM mixing bowl and grind 30 seconds on speed 9. Set aside.
Place roughly chopped parsley and stale bread into TM mixing bowl and chop 5-8 seconds, speed 7; scrape down sides.
Add remaining ingredients into TM mixing bowl and mix on speed 6, 15-20 seconds or until well combined.
Pour mixture into greased pudding basin and place a piece of baking paper over the top secured with a rubber band – I found that when I put the lid on the pudding dish the varoma lid did not close. Place pudding basin into varoma dish and put varoma lid on.
Without washing TM bowl, pour 1.2L of boiling water, straight from the kettle, into TM bowl; set the timer on for 50 minutes, varoma temperature, speed 2.5. The pudding is ready when the middle starts to rise. Test with a skewer if unsure- if it comes out clean, then it’s ready to be consumed.

Tip onto a plate, slice it up and I like to have it with a gravy or sauce, either a mushroom and parsley sauce or a homemade tomato based gravy.

It’s great as a sandwich filler with mustard, mayo and slices of tomato; or it’s a perfect Mock Roast Turkey for any festive celebrations.

Conventional Method:

Grind nuts in batches in a coffee grinder or blender. Place in large mixing bowl.
Finely dice the onion, finely chop the parsley and crush the garlic clove and place in mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Combine well and put mixture into a greased pudding basin and cover with lid. Place basin in a large pot and fill with boiling water till it reaches halfway up the basin. Place lid on pot and let steam for an hour and a half (maximum 2 hours). Don’t forget to keep topping up the water with more boiling water.